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kins' serial story of Ellen Brewster
liave been completed. The psycholog
ical part is auto-biographical. Every
woman who reads the story can testi
fy to the genuineness of the revela
tions of the soul-life of a child. Miss
Wilkins could not tell it so if she had
only read it, nor would the heart
leap so when she tells the sacred se
crets of our own childhood. A seer
looks backward as well as forward,
.and looks backward through clear
and unobstructed medium at an age
-when the material affairs of life en
gage the whole attention of man.
More than the forecast is the retro--spect,
and of all the story-tellers who
recall to us the trance and adventure
of childhood, I think Miss Wilkins is
the most faithful and universal wit
ness. -Occasionally a child weeps
disconsolately and will not tell why,
or he laughs and nobody knows the
joke. If he were willing he could uot
explain, -so wide is the gulf fixed be
tween hi in and those who have left
his world. Occasionally an occult in
some incommunicable way recrosses
the gulf, returns and immediately,
before the experience is dulled, re
lates it. When the boy is a youth
his dreams are done. As ineffectual
ly as the believer in transmigration,
-who seeks to remember his former
shape, the uninspired adolescent seeks
to reopen the door which has just
been closed upon him. Miss Wilkins
has groped her way bick and her
travel notes are especially interesting
to those who have been trying for a
long time to remember the way to the
fairest land they have ever known,
whose meadows, forests and magnifi
cent architecture they have no pic
ture of and which ever tantalize.
Wordsworth's ''Ode on the Intima
tions of Immortality," occurs here:
"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.
The soul that rises in us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting ,
And cometh from afar.
Xfot in entire f orgetf ulness ,
And not in utter nakrdnrss ,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From Godt who is our home.
Heaven lies about us in our infancy 1
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy ;
But he perceives the light,
and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy:
The youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is nature's priest ;
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended ;
At last the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day ."
J j
An Orchestra.
Commercially we are in the midst
Df one of the most fruitful states in
the union; bygienically Nebraska is
the healthiest of states. The yield of
Tye, wheat, corn, oats, alfalfa, hay
-and beets, Is increasing yearly. As
a wealth-producing state Nebraska is
among the first three, and far be it
-from me to disparage 'its advantages.
As a state of summer residence it is,
however, undesirable. There are two
natural objects especially designed
to mitigate the heat and depression
of summer a mountain and a large
body of water. Neither the moun
tain nor the water are within cool
ing distance of Lincoln. In the sum
mer time the citizens of Nebraska
niuet gasp without relief through
days scorched by blasts from the
Kansas plains which are hotter than
Nebraska prairies. Thera are no
casinos, there are no parks to speak
of because there Is not water enqugli
to keep the grass from burning yel
low. A few play golf, fewer play
tenr.is and some cf the most persist
ent seekers after recreation play
croquet. A disproportionately large
number of people keep a horse and
"buggy." If the horse goes fast
enough the family he pulls is mom
entarily cooled. There Is even a
dearth of flowers In this unfortunate
land, and when flowers desert the
summer it is indeed forlorn. In enu
merating the advantages of a summer
residence in Lincoln the absence of
mosquitoes and the uniformly cool
nights should not be omitted, for they
atone for much.
For the last two seasons the Hage
now orchestra has given bi-weekly,
open-air concerts, which rich and poor
have attended by the thousands.
They have been the sole public effort
made to entertain the people. But
they did not pay. A few public
spirited citizens contributed gener
ously to the concerts, but those who
enjoyed them the most and attended
in the largest numbers paid nothing
at all. The director of the orchestra
is not a rich man but he has spent his
life here trying to organize a credita
ble orchestra and he has succeeded.
At the recent tournament in St. Paul,
the Hagenow orchestra took first
prize over twelve competing bands
from verv much larger cities. Now
the credit of organizing and main
taining this orchestra is due entirely
to Mr. Hagenow. Courageously, and
with a musician's pathetic patience,
year after year he has canvassed Lin
coln for subscriptions to his concerts,
with indifferent financial results. In
municipal celebrations, for charity,
for patriotism, this musical conductor
has donated his services to the city.
Ir the value of his donations to this
and that good object were computed
it would be discovered that out. of all
the citizens of Lincoln this man has
given the most to the public. The
occasions he helps us to celebrate,
civic, military, religious, carnival,
what dreary functions they would be
without this band. The citizens owe
him a debt, a large debt which only a
few have ever recognized. The con
certs which Mr. Hagenow proposed to
give this summer in the auditorium
have not been a success. The people
who flocked in such large numbers to
the open air concerts refused u pa
tronize those where only tweny-five
cents admission was charged. The
discouragement of a life's unappre
ciated effort is bitter. For this one
bit of sweetness and light mitigating
the glare of midsummer Mr. Hagenow
should at least receive a fair wage.
It has been proposed to place contri
bution boxes throughout the city, so
that those who approve of the open
air concerts may assist to reestablish
them. The dance numbers were ad
ded to the regular concert in order
to increase the attendance. On ac
count of the immorality the dances
were supposed to encourage, Mr.
Hagenow was urged to leave them out
of. his program, and he complied.
Having gained their point, very prop
erly many of those who disapproved
of the dancing, desire to aid in mak
ing the open air concerts a success.
If on next Tuesday the directorshould
conclude to have a concert on the
capitol grounds the people who come
will be asked to contribute something
to very faithful musicians. The
audience under the sky should con
tribute both for the pleasure of that
occasion, of many others, and on ac
count of the public service Mr. Hage
now has so long, so faithfully, and so
ably performed.
Literature.
As it is taught in the university or
Nebraska, literature is . a matter of
signs and symbols. Every ambitious
student who graduates from this
university is furnished with
a recipe for making short stories, and
is taught that careful attention to
the recipe alone is essential to the
production of a good composition.
Successful stories are analyzed and
divided into "a," "b" and "c" "ef
fects." Under such a system absurd
conclusions arc reached by credulous
students. One of the best known
theses produced by a student in this
department states, after a careful
comparative analysis of emotional
"effects" in Dumas' Camille and Lit
tle lied Biding-hood, that the former
had only fifteen more emotional "ef
fects" than the Mother Goose ditty.
Bed Riding-hood has therefore never
occupied its proper literary rank.
The number of books issued by uni
versity students as soon as they have
thoroughly memorized the recipe is
remarkable. Their monotonous machine-made
contents are not credita
ble to the department in the univer
sity whieh graduated them and
encouraged them to make books.
Professor Sherman is at the head of
the department of English in the uni
versity. He is a thoroughly amiable
gentleman, respected by all who know
him. His scholarship is impeccable,
but a number of years ago he made a
discovery and like other inventors
and discoverers his own device tills
the horizon and obscures his view of
the rest of the world. So completely
is the field of literature excluded
from the view of the students in the
department of literature in the Ne
braska university, that they are grad
uated without catching one glimpse
of the whole extensive field. They
spend their time studying "effects"
and acquiring faith in themselves as
creators of literature. Special stu
dents of literature leave the depart
ment with little knowledge of the
subject. They have studied the "An
alytics of Literature" as Christian
Scientists study "Science and Health"
and as Mahomet is greater than the
Creator. Among the students of lit
erature who have been graduated by
this university I know of not one who
has accomplished anything whatever
in literature who does not count the
years spent in studying "effects" a
loss of time. Ihe world is large, but
all inventions must succeed or fail
there, removed from the hypnotic in
fluence of the inventor. Men of let
ters speak with regret and ridicule
of the system in which the Nebraska
students are instructed. A student
of literature who enters Harvard or
Columbia from the Nebraska univer
sity is quite likely, unless he has read
outside the course, to be appalled by
what he does not know after he has
accomplished reading and research
which he should have finished in his
freshman year, when he was counting
words instead, and he is apt to regard
his wasted time with regret. It is un
fortunate that in criticizing a man's
invention one seems to be criticizing
the man himself, which is far from
the purpose of this review. Professor
Sherman's "The Analytics of Litera
ture" is a valuable contribution to the
economics of criticism and an aid to the
understanding of dramatic literature
especially; but as an entire substitute
for a literary course it is a most unfor
tunate exchange for the students of
English.
Within this department an alpha
bet unlike any known terminology
has been developed. It is another
language, but the students who learn
it are not able to communicate, by
means of it, with any one who has
not taken the course. It is like a
secret society whose ritual consists of
long formulas difficult to learn, and
whose secrets are therefore forever
safe. In permitting the entire ab
sorption of the English department
by this unique system, the regents
the
nts
ni
and vu,
is
'.ey
i?e
'f
should satisfy themselves, beyon .
shadow of a doubt, that the stu .
gain more than they lose by the
stitution of "Analytics" for liter t
The students who attend this
versity are straitened for tinif
money. For most of them the
three or four years they spend hi"
the only lengthened opportuniu
will ever have to acquire a know
of literature the strained treasui
centuries. They should not b
prived of it without weighty rea-
Pennsylvania.
It is a far cry from Master Wii.nm
Penn, the founder of Philade'rhia
and the god-father of Pennsylvania.
Senator Matthew S. Quay, the (.rec
ent boss of the state. Nebraska ha
come under boss rule much quicker.
State control of Pennsylvania nties
made it possible for the Quay rin tu
giveaway" street railway fraiu-in-e
valued at more than two million and
a half dollars. As soon as lie heard
of the impudent street railway jrant
authorized by an act of the legisla
ture Mr. Jonn Wanamaker offered
Mayor Ashebridge of Philadelphia for
for the city, two million and a half
dollars for the Philadelphia fran
chises, but his offer was not accepted.
The dominance of such a boss as Quay
means a direct money loss to the
state which harbors and supports
him. The insult to liberty and self
respect does not seem to amount to
much but the time will never come
when people can be robbed and not
resent it. Pennsylvania is the sport
of states, Philadelphia has lost two
million and a half dollars and will
lose much more than that, because
the mayor is a creature of Quay's ana
appoints men to city offices not be
cause they are capable of doing the
duties for which they are paid, hut
because they are friends ot Quay's.
The city must be served by ignorant,
incapable servants because it ac
knowledges a boss. A boss is an East
ern sovereign the West cannot afford.
A boss steals the highways, city of
ficials, and distributes the contents of
the treasury to illegitimate claimant-.
The little premature boss we have out
here is revengeful and petty but lie
has learned the bosses'first lesson that
all the offices must be distributed by
him.
IN SUMMER-TIME.
EMILY GUIWITS.
(For The Courier. )
A summer blue in the heavens ;
A summer warmth in the air ;
We two alone together
Wandering here and there "
Roaming the meadow over,
Looking for four leafed clover.
Dear love, with hair of golden,
With eyes of gentian blue,
You looked at the fresh, green clover,
I only looked at you I
Roaming the meadow over,
Looking for four leafed clover.
The summer fast is passing;
The shadows longer grow;
But my heart is true, my dearie,
As in the days so long ago
Roaming the meadow over,
Looking for four-leafed clover.
Ups and Downs of the Gay Soubritte
CRESCENDO. DIMINL'BNOO.
One trunk.
Two trunks.
Diamond ring.
A bank account.
A trip abroad.
An apartment.
Aflat.
A house.
Takes in boarder.
Mortgages house.
Back to flat.
Then to apartnief.
Overdraws bank hu-
count.
Pawns jewels.
Two trunks.
One trunk.
Town Topics
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